Most of your traffic will probably find your site through a search engine. And one thing you can count on is that 98% of those visitors are not yet ready to transact. Instead, they are in an information gathering and research phase.

They will click through to your site, bounce around the pages for a while then head back to the search engine and click on the next website and so on and so on.

Nobody wants the embarrassment of making an uninformed purchase. Especially when having to face a spouse, friend or even a boss. So they will stay in that research stage for as long as it takes them to reach an inner peace – a confidence in knowing that they’ve done their due diligence.

With researchers bouncing around so much, you can imagine how easy it can be to lose them to another website within moments. So you need something in place to help prevent that. A way to “capture” them in a pinch. We call that a lead capture or hook.

Can the hook be a discount offer? NO! Remember, most of your visitors are researching and not ready to transact. A discount for a purchase at this point would be presumptuous with no value to them at all.

Can it be a free consultation? Wellllll it could be. But what would a free consultation say to you if you were the prospect? High pressure sales? Awkward to get out of? An hour listening to a sales pitch? So I would say no.

A lead capture, or hook is not a high pressure way to get a sale today. Instead it is a simple way to start a trusting relationship with those researchers before they click away from your site. It should be packed with information and can be in the form of a downloadable e-book, audio file, video or even a free trial. You give them something they simply cannot refuse – peace of mind, in exchange you get their name and email address.

It absolutely must be completely string, advertising, hype and cost free.

The goal of the hook is to add your visitors to your contact list, so you can gently and genuinely guide them along the decision-making process, giving them that feeling of knowledge and confidence.

So what’s in it for you?

A valuable hook will easily make an introduction where you could not have. And if you are a consultative, nurturing seller (and I hope you are) you will be given multiple opportunities to be the one standing in that position of trust when they finally arrive at the transaction phase.

The great news is that a huge portion of your competitors have absolutely no ability or desire to do this. Many business owners I’ve come across can’t even get a handle on the string-free aspect let alone any type of consultative nurturing. They’re just looking for that good-ole fish bowl tactic to reel in the numbers then run ’em through some sales machine that they learned from some guru’s DVD series.

Although the word “hook” can sound negative and tricky, it’s really just a way to make an introduction in a pinch, allowing you to build a long-term trusting relationship in your communication and engagement phase.